Time to head home.

(Boat Flamingo - posted by Alan)

(Post for Tuesday 27th August)

We had a cracking time at Alvecote, but now life means we have to leave, and get ourselves back home.  Whilst we have no need to be in a mad rush, I have hospital appointments on Saturday, so we need to be back on the home mooring on Friday night latest.

Passing Arundel (a modern working boat) towing Brighton (a 1930s boat).

I've just been reminded by Facebook about the trip away from Alvecote last year, when we arrived at Atherstone locks to find a queue of half a dozen boats waiting to go up.  It is inevitable that it will be busy as many boats travel away from this large event - at least this year there were only three or four boats queued ahead of us, although quite a few soon joined the queue behind.

 
 

It may have been very busy at the locks, but this picture looks otherwise.

There was no point in rushing, of course, and anyway we planned to stop after 6 locks for some very much needed shopping, particularly as we had somehow managed to turn our fridge off on Monday, and food we thought we had available to us was no longer necessarily safe to eat.  By the time we had shopped, had lunch, and set off again, very few people were using the locks, and the onset of some rain made it unlikely that many more now would.

 

Another tranquil picture that seems unrelated to the actual number of boats.

We more or less have a standard pattern of how Alvecote to the home mooring in Northamptonshire can be comfortably handled in four not particularly intensive days.  Our regular choice for the first night's sop is Springwood Haven, (which I assume to be a modern name, though I am happy to be proved wrong).  It has good moorings, peace and quiet, and quality dog walks.  If you push on much further you are soon into the several miles of canal that pass through Nuneaton - a far less enticing prospect altogether!

Alvecote Marina to Springwood Haven
Miles 10.3, Locks:11
Total Miles 61.7, Total Locks: 39